Grip Edge warranty experience?

[mreisner]

I broke a grip Edge 5/32 Hex Socket today trying to remove a lock screw on a hub. First time I used it and it broke. I had a long Mac rbrt socket and it took the next one out no problem, so I'm assuming the grip Edge was just defective. Has anybody had any experience getting a warranty replacement from them?

 

[Steve_P]

Bit sockets break. It happens. Contact the mfg, but expect to pay since you didn't buy from a tool truck and pay the 3X premium for that no questions replacement feature.

 

[mreisner]

Update. After doing the warranty claim thing twice, I emailed them this morning asking for an acknowledgment of my claims. They begged apologies, said that the replacement part was sent out Monday and gave me a tracking number. Apparently they're outbound emails aren't getting out sometimes. due glitch in the system. All in all I am very satisfied.

 

[oldschoolcraft]

Dont mean to thread hijack about Grip Edge's individual company warranty, but it sounds like you got that resolved. So let's discuss RBRT warranties in general since they seem like disposable tools.

I see that HF now sells some RBRT sockets. Quinn Branded

Since they are cheap, and HF allegedly has a decent warranty, I am thinking my strategy might be to buy two sets. And abuse them, hammer them on if needed. The second set on hand in case I break one and have a second bolt of the same size I need taken out. So it avoids having to stop work to go to HF.

$30 per set of SAE or Metric. Maybe I buy two Metric and one SAE. With coupons, would be around $70. I could probably hammer a similar sized SAE onto a metric for a third socket of each size.

I'm guessing these are cheap steel that won't last more than a few times regardless of how you treat them. I think you'd actually want them in cheap steel that you could hammer onto the fastener, let the socket deform to the fastener without damaging it. Basically a no-weld way of fastening a 3/8" square female hole to the end of the fastener that you can put an impact wrench or breaker bar on.

I could see using a 3/8" drive hand impact driver like one of these to hammer some Quinn "RBRT" sockets on:

 

[AJHD]

I see that HF now sells some RBRT sockets. Quinn Branded

Not at all the same thing. And extractor sockets are also different than bit sockets.

 

[finn]

Dont mean to thread hijack about Grip Edge's individual company warranty, but it sounds like you got that resolved. So let's discuss RBRT warranties in general since they seem like disposable tools.

I see that HF now sells some RBRT sockets. Quinn Branded

Since they are cheap, and HF allegedly has a decent warranty, I am thinking my strategy might be to buy two sets. And abuse them, hammer them on if needed. The second set on hand in case I break one and have a second bolt of the same size I need taken out. So it avoids having to stop work to go to HF.

$30 per set of SAE or Metric. Maybe I buy two Metric and one SAE. With coupons, would be around $70. I could probably hammer a similar sized SAE onto a metric for a third socket of each size.

I'm guessing these are cheap steel that won't last more than a few times regardless of how you treat them. I think you'd actually want them in cheap steel that you could hammer onto the fastener, let the socket deform to the fastener without damaging it. Basically a no-weld way of fastening a 3/8" square female hole to the end of the fastener that you can put an impact wrench or breaker bar on.

I could see using a 3/8" drive hand impact driver like one of these to hammer some Quinn "RBRT" sockets on:

Just my opinion, but if you’re going to deliberately abuse a tool and risk damaging that tool in the process of treating it as something disposable, you should be man enough to eat the cost of the tool yourself.

It’s totally different than breaking a tool using it the way the tool was designed to be used in the first place.

 

[oldschoolcraft]

Just my opinion, but if you’re going to deliberately abuse a tool and risk damaging that tool in the process of treating it as something disposable, you should be man enough to eat the cost of the tool yourself.

It’s totally different than breaking a tool using it the way the tool was designed to be used in the first place.

I agree, generally. With respect to extractor sockets, isn't hammering them on how they are designed to be used? You can try one that fits flush on it perfectly, but if that won't catch the rounded bolt face then hammering on the next smaller size is what I've heard was the method.

In which case either the sockets are considered disposable, and shouldn't be warrantably at all, like files getting worn down. Or they knowingly warranty them that they will eventually break? If they sold individual sockets then it seems reasonably to drop $4 on a new replacement one. But if the only option is you need to drop $30 on a whole new set, just because you used one, as it's prescribed and it broke, that seems like it can't be right.

 

[garfunkle24]

Generally those extractor sockets are harder than the fastener. Yeah, they wear with use, but the fastener takes the brunt of the damage. Good ones, anyway. I have the OG Turbosockets. They bite well enough from the helix alone that I more "tap" them on than "hammer" them. Some sizes have been used a LOT more than a few times. Can't speak for the Quinn ones though.